I leave Roma at noon on a train, and enjoy a two hour journey through the Italian landscape. I get several seats to myself, and thoroughly enjoy the comfort of enough legroom, beautiful views - I lean back and smile smugly to myself, listening to Pat Matheney and Charles Haden on my MP3 player. Elisabetta gave me some Norwegian sweets and Barbara a magazine. I am really going to enjoy travelling through Europe by train. When I get to Assisi I just grin. And I...

It's just too much. I have no words left.

It's just a couple of days before the holy days of Easter. The last days of Christ will be re-enacted in the streets. From the Vatican the Pope will speak to the enormous crowds that travel to see him at Easter each year. It's a big event, televised around the world. Elisabetta gets a text message from her father saying that her mother is looking for her amongst all the faces on TV. Christian groups have come from around Europe and America to this Mecca of cat...

The trip to Rome had been planned for almost a year. When I started talking about my trip we decided that it would be great to meet in Rome in the beginning of the Easter holidays. I couldn't ask for better travel mates to the Eternal City: Barbara is a student of architecture and Elisabetta speaks Italian. I am blond. I left the Norwegian class in the airport in Barcelona and found my flight to Rome. As soon as I boarded the plane I was hit by a wall of noi...